Reduce churn and opex?
Networks that could automatically self-optimise according to cell traffic conditions and type could save operators a great deal of opex, as well as reduce churn by making mobile networks more efficient and delivering a better user experience – according to Shirin Dehghan, ceo of network optimization company Arieso.
In late February 2008, Dehghan and her management team secured a $10 million Series B investment led by Oxford Capital Partners and Qualcomm Ventures, the investment arm of Qualcomm Incorporated. Arieso’s existing shareholders, Add Partners and Top Technology, also participated in the Series B round.
The Arieso team’s intention is to use that money to help develop its goal of tools that will enable a network to respond automatically to changes in usage and conditions, so it can always be optimised without requiring costly intervention of engineers.
Dehghan said that Arieso currently has a Beta system with a tier one operator in the United States, “operating 24/7 without human intervention.” The investment will take this from its current stage to commercial offering, she added.
“Essentially at the moment an operator builds a network and it is static until a problem occurs.” Dehghan said. ”Then in optimisation terms you will need a troubleshooting team of engineers to solve the issues. With the growth of data applications, it’s going to get more difficult to correct the network in the time it needs to be corrected.”
And the system could also be used to analyse not just traffic, but the value of that traffic to operators, and then adjust the network, and hence the customer experience, accordingly.
“With our system, layer one information the mobile transmits to the base station is used not only to locate the user, and gain application and user experience information, but there is further information about the actual customer. We can look back to how much that user spends, and come up with revenue maps of a network, rather than traditional traffic maps at the switch level.”
In terms of cost reductions to operators, there are savings on engineer workload, but also in being able to balance the network from a traffic perspective – offering more coverage along trunk roads at peak travel times, and then into surrounding areas at other times, for instance.
“It’s not just about cost reduction” Dehghan said, “It’s about churn reductions as well, to seek out those people that are having problems. If the system seeks out those people who are heavy bandwidth users, then by ensuring a good radio channel to those users you can generate more revenue and goodwill.”
Dehghan acknowledged Arieso is not the only optmisation company out there addressing this market. “It’s a new market and a very exciting one, so there are going to be a lot of people talking about it – but at the end of the day this will be about who can deliver, not just talk about it.” she added.